Effect of semantic representations on episodic memory for unrelated sensory information

Abstract

The present research investigated the integration of meaning and sensory information within episodic memory. Early research (e.g. Morris, Bransford & Franks, 1977; Stein, 1978, as well as Tulving & Thomson, 1973; Fisher & Craik, 1977) investigated episodic memory based on 'transfer appropriate processing' or 'encoding specificity' explanations of memory treated memory for meaning and sensory information as separable processes. In contrast, recent research (e.g. Hayman, Servais & Macdonald, 1995; Cofell, 1994) has found evidence of an interactive representation of meaning and sensory information within episodic memory using words as the target stimuli. The present experiments extend these findings to pictorial material using congruent and incongruent manipulations of both the meaning and the colour of pictures at study. Experiment 1 replicated the findings of Hayman et al. (1995) in which episodic memory is better when both meaning and sensory information are processed simultaneously at study. Experiment 2 replicated the results of Experiment 1, as well as investigated the relationship between 'remember' and 'know' recognitions (Gardiner, 1988; Tulving, 1985) and episodic memory for sensory features. The results supported an interdependent representation of meaning and sensory information within episodic memory when responses were conditional upon a 'remember' recognition response, although the independence of 'remember' and 'know' responses was not clear.